As a franchise organization matures it must begin to understand the need to turn franchisees into promoters. Typically this means giving franchisees the tools they need to succeed financially. In franchising, we talk about the importance of franchisee validation. This can become a chicken and egg exercise.
When franchisors begins their journeys, they understand that profitable franchisees are happy franchisees. It was true in the beginning but often the message gets lost in the grasp to gain new franchisees. The company stops focusing on the primary client (existing franchisees) and tries to please potential franchisees that are what I call the “interim” client.
In large part, this happens from a Zoracle assessment and alignment perspective because the franchise company does not understand the Stage of Growth they are in at the moment. They also may not have accurately assessed their own culture and values.
Founders of franchises rarely fall into this trap independently – not if they were once behind the counter. Rather marketing, sales and development types within the growing company push them into it. The “mixed message” occurs when the ability or capacity to sell franchises outstrips the companies ability to create deliverables centered around their core values and/or their actual products and services. Of course there is also always greed to consider.
The chicken and egg issue is exacerbated when franchise development marketing simply attempts to create messages around what the potential franchisee market wants. Selling someone what they want is a disaster; particularly if what you find is that it does not emulate your internal culture and values.
No, the marketing department needs to deeply understand the culture and values as well as how the end deliverables of a franchisee are best displayed to the marketplace. We must never let “the egg”, the new franchisee, tell the momma chicken, the franchise company, how it will be done or what they should look like.
When the CEO, Founder and/or President come back to their senses they also recognize that they can’t accomplish the goal of sustainable and rapid growth unless front-line employees believe it is possible to do what needs to be done. The culture has to be “can-do” centric. What needs to be done to support the culture, its values and deliver what is anticipated to existing franchisees has little to do with franchise sales.
Helping you balance this all and keep you both in alignment and growing are our goals at Zoracle!